OK, a couple of days late after a long weekend in Brighton. Stuff and nonsence at http://www.rit.edu/~andpph/gallery.html includes: Rich Mason - Probably my favorite of the week. One of those images I wished I could take.No doubt it will soon be illegal to take photos (or even possess photographic appareil) within an airport terminal. I love the repetition of faces moving back through the picture. Everything is exactly as you would want it to be for the picture as shown to work. Did you know all these people and get them to pose "masters of the decisive moment" style or was it truly a found image? Please tell me it was a set up - then I won't feel quite so inferior in failing to notice and capture such scenes myself :o) Veli Cigirgan - Mmmm ... I almost said a "dog's breakfast" then remembered you should not feed them fish bones. I'm at a loss to understand what I am supposed to make of this, certainly what I am supposed to like about it. I have seen still lives of fish-bits before but this lacks for me that quality. A scan of a print? Maybe it has lost something during the scan. Sorry, just can't get into the picture. Bob Talbot - Viewmaster Cat For once I can be totally honest: this picture is cat whichever way you look at it. Polly - Young Robin Probably my second favourite this week. Classic bird portrait, almost 3 dimensional. Love the selective focus separating the bird from the background. Was the highlight in the eye natural or from a flash? Laying down the guantlet to Jim perhaps to show some more of his better bird images? Leslie Spurlock - UN Doctor Powerful image. All the real interest is in the triangle - doctor's face, hands and red cross. It works as a picture yet I know that the backround knowlege (location, UN and all that) is influencing how I respond to it. Perhaps they need advice on building though: the block wall is laid in stack-bond - about the weakest pattern known. Stretcher bons is so much more secure. Pablo Coronel - Ballet night Nice shot: one I'm sure her family will treasure. Lacks any distractions in the background. Good amount of soft focus. Cute little expression on the girl's face. Not sure it's a seller outside the immediate family, but who cares? Christopher Strevens - Bus Station Interesting shot, almost devoid of people. Almost wonder if it would be better with no people. The levels seem dominated by a couple of highlights which have made it look a bit too gloomy - for no good effect. Messing about with levels (esp allowing a small amount of top-end clipping) improved it for me. Photoshoppery? Well, it looks too cyan in places but it does not look overt. Terry L. Mair - Johnson Mill A good stock shot. Does not hold the same emotion for me as your last submission but it hold no overt flaws either. I'm happy with the composition and presentation but there is something that's not grabbing me beyond saying it's well seen and taken. Without knowing the history of the mill it's just a picture of a house ? Trevor Cunningham - face in window The first face I saw was slightly lower down and to the left on the pillar. A moody shot.I would show this without the title (at least without the word face in the title) and let the viewer discover it. For me its not so obvious. It's almost like a ghostly Saddam lurks inside. Jim Davis - No Rules The trouble is with not having rules is that standards drop. Sure, call it art, but careful not to start to hide mistakes behind that umbrella. No rules? Well, the coot is on the top third ;o) All the stuff in front, the blurred water and blurred duck can be just wasted space, visual clutter of an essential part of the atrist's style: a statement against the established norms of photographic perfection: a challenge to late 20th century pictorialst dogma. Well, it could be. But for me it fails. Either I can't see past the rules or I just prefer more self-contained images. Even the totally blown o ut - but shamelessly un-disguised - white highlight on the ducks wing. It is 21st century photography indeed. I won't bother mentioning cropping because Jim can probably guess anyway.
